AWP 2016 (the conference for the Association of Writers & Writing Programs) in Los Angeles was la-la lovely. Marion and I flew out together, for the first time in all of these years of traveling to different cities. Our first bit of business? We discussed what our podcast from AWP would be about.
Literary Death Match? Could we ever have an experience close to the awesomeness of Mark Doty in Chicago? Tony Hoagland in Boston? Abraham Smith in Seattle? How about Chris Abani, Susan Orlean, Danez Smith, and Kirsten Valdez Quade in L.A.? And since it’s LA, let’s throw in some celebrities like, I dunno, Martin Starr, Lena Waithe, Michaela Watkins, and Zach Woods.
The Stars at the Literary Death Match
Sure, hot enough, but basically, we wanted to sit back and enjoy the show, and then immediately have umbrella drinks on the rooftop, so…what else could we talk about?
How crowded it was? Negative and boring.
How expensive it was? Negative and boring.
AWP Ladies and Gentlemen!
Should we interview our Uber drivers? Not a bad idea. But, when we thought just that much longer, probably about when we were flying over Wyoming, we thought about the AWP conference and everyone’s expectations, how overwhelming it can be to have so many choices, how undone one can become even when all of those choices are great, we thought about the bookfair.
We thought about how much we enjoy “camping out” at the bookfair, letting the attendees and our far-flung friends come to us, doing laps ourselves when we need to stretch. Yes. We’d hang out and the boofair and talk to people about…
Writing. What else? Tune in and hear what people are working on when they’re not swimming in the riches of the AWP conference.
John-Michael Peter Bloomquis, the founder and director of Poetry for Trash talked to us about his organization. Poetry for Trash goes to public parks and forests, installing stations where passerby can read a poem. The reader decides how much trash the poem is worth, and places the litter they find inside a trash bag. Poetry really is making the world a better place!
Tell us what you think about AWP (and anything else) on our Facebook event page.
Sign up for our email list if you’re in the area and even if you’re not!
Follow us on Twitter @PaintedBrideQ and Instagram @paintedbridequarterly.
Read on!
-KVM
Kathy Graber and Kazim Ali
Episode 87: “The Speaker is Clearly a French Fry”
Episode 86: Sonograms, Vanity & Truman Capote
Caitlyn Jenner and Baked Alaska (or When Thumbs Cry)
Episode 84: Hot Pants & Sneeze Ghosts
Episode 83: Goodnight, Mary Magdalene
Episode 82: "1-4-3"
Episode 81: Dad Jokes & Happiness
Episode 80: In Flux
Episode 79: Do it again! Do it again!
Episode 78: It’s Brusque!
Episode 77: Belly-up!
Episode 76: A Toilet in Denver or Florida is for the Fraught
Episode 75: Gate Opening and Other Sweaty Festivities
Episode 74: Drugs, Love and Cagelights
Episode 73: Hornery Is as Hornery Does
Episode 72: Just the Tip
Episode 71: The Lost Episode (with bonus Anatomy Lessons!)
Episode 70: Scalloped Potatoes (with apologies to Ohio)
Episode 69: Memories in Connecticut
Episode 68: Rooftops and Buttered Popcorn
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
50 Tastes Of Gray
Dear Alice | Interior Design
Spider-Man Crawlspace Podcast
Anne of Green Gables
The War of the Worlds
The Magnus Archives
Fresh Air